The last time and first time I was in Louisiana was back in Dec 1013. I have to say I have a crush on New Orleans. On that trip we hit up all the touristy things to do, and popular areas in the city like the Bourbon Street, Garden District, French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny... we dined at Emerils, and Cafe du Monde, known for their famous cafe' au lait, beignets,... took a horse drawn carriage ride, did a walking ghost tour, cemetery walks, visited the Mardi Gras World Museum, Jackson Square, The National WWII Museum, lunched on magazine street, visited a voodoo priestess, took a boat ride down the Mississippi river to Algiers point, listened to Jazz at the famous Spotted Cat Club and bar hoped and ate Italian food on Frenchman Street, hurricane at the old Lafittes blacksmith shop bar, the oldest ... and so much more. And it was extra special then because everything was decorated for Christmas.

​This time I'm having a quick visit, short and sweet. Mardi Gras just ended and I am on a search for beads, for a contest I am having over @ Sea Gypsies Boutique. We got a rental car this time around so it is nice to be able to get around quick. TIP : Check rates. Don't just go for the first quote you get ask for a day more or a day less to see how the rate changes. for example for us it was 85.00 for 3 days or 250 for 2.5....

We arrived late at night so our first stop was straight to our hotel, a Hilton Airport hotel, to get some sleep to awake for our drive to Baton Rouge, LA.​

SEARCHING FOR BEADS ​I had no issues with finding beads ! Before we headed out to BR we drove around NO a bit... As we drove up and down the parade routes we saw beads on fences and on the ground and in the trees ! ALL over the trees ! Amazing.

On our way from New Orleans to Baton Rouge it's about an hour drive on what I call a Bayou-Biway, swampland on each side of you the entire way. I would suggest finding a nice Cajun radio station that plays some "swamp pop", that's what we did, it really kicks up the experience. On our way we passed throught some awesome bridges, crossing the winding mississippi river, stopped to take a few photos.

Baton Rouge surprised me, with it's art and architecture down by the Riverwalk, located on the mighty mississippi. ​We visited the mall of Baton Rouge, then made our way over to the Riverwalk where they have a space and planetary museum, the ship the USS Kidd, the old State Capital museum, (most closed sunday by the time we got there) We like our state capitals so like to get an IG pic for our collections. IG: LadyDiWanderlust We got both the old and new state capitals. : )

We checked into the Hyatt Baton Rouge, which is a fairly nice hotel, except for the cleaning staff ! OH My goodness.. I experienced endless hours of door slamming and hollering to one another down the hallways. Nothing I have ever experienced at any hotel anywhere, in all of my world travels !

We dined at two spots that were a walk across a parking lot from one another... because after we perused their menus on our phone apps we couldn't decide which one to try. The first one the Rum House Caribbean Taqueria, we enjoyed rum cocktails and some side dishes, their jalapeno coleslaw, roasted poblano & manchego polenta, (which was awesome ! ) mac & cheese, and jerked rasta veggies etc the second the Olive or Twist, hand crafted cocktails and appz, fried green tomatillos and a pita bread dish (puffy and warm and soft, oh my goodness, like no pita I have ever had !) I took a chance on cocktail roulette where you name a base spirit and they make you a surprise cocktail. Sundays places close early, so we took what we could find, which were great, convenient choices in the end.

Day 2 :: Not much to do while my husband is out teaching hair, so I made plans to hit the gym and made beaded baubles for Sea Gypsies Boutique in my room. For dinner the recommendation was to go to Bistro Byronz ... a cute Louisiana Bistro/ french restaurant. I enjoyed some fried green tomatoes, my husband sipped on a Kathy Bates (gin infused drink with green tomatoes in it !) I have to say the food we experienced here in Baton Rouge was quite delicious.

Back to New Orleans... we awoke to TORNADO WARNINGS heading to Baton Rouge !​Yikes... we are out of here, but first one quick stop at a wholesale bead store 10 minutes away and then back on the Bayou Biway...

We drove back to N.O. in rain, drove around the city in the stormy weather ! Rain and wind, but no sign of tornados where we were, although the phone weather apps we were using showed that it was all around New Orleans and showed tornadoes touching down, we never saw one. ​We found ourselves driving around cemeteries and I thought, what a great place to be if a tornado touches down, because those marble mosoleums aren't going anywhere ! Duck and cover. Their cemeteries are glorious with their architecture and stained glass. A must see and do. The Weather Channel featured a video clip I posted on my IG, pretty cool !

We drove around and continued our search for beads, I could grab handfuls of plain beads all day long, hanging on iron fences and gates in front of residences. But I was in search of just the ones with medallions, special ones, so it made our "hunt" that much more challenging and in the rain, sort of miserable !! LOL But we did it ! (my poor hubby, he's awesome !) I wasn't sure of the rules of taking beads, if there were guidelines, wife tales ... if you take one you must leave one ? If someone leaves one, it's good luck, if you take one you'll get bad luck, or your just rude for stealing ! My guilt was keeping our taking sparse and selective.

* When I got home I googled it. I found that the beads on the gates and fences are in fact decoration, not trade or taking intended. YIKES !

We found most of our beads along St. Charles ave (Garden district) in the end, we collected 20 strands. We drove around the Freshmans street, Canal street, Bourbon street .... tried meeting up with a friend for lunch, who was in town. ended up eating at a place called the Voodoo BBQ & Grille, being a vegetarian I only had the sides which were all good, very friendly people. We headed back to the airport extra early to be certain to catch our flight, not knowing the conditions on the highways. It was all good. Our flight was only delayed a bit, by the lightening strikes.

and the winner is...

​I still have a crush on New Orleans ... it's one of those places I don't mind doing again and again.

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Give us your favorite to do's and sees in Louisiana for our next visit out. Would love to hear from you. ​